1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air bag device, and more particularly to an air bag device in which an air bag which attenuates an impact to a rider of a motorcycle or the like is incorporated in the rider's clothing.
2. Description of Background Art
Conventionally, a jacket has been proposed which incorporates an air inflating chamber (air bag) for attenuating an impact to a rider of a motorcycle or the like. For example, JP-A-2002-20907 discloses a jacket provided with an air bag for covering the whole body of a rider. Further, Japanese Utility Model Registration publication 3048094 discloses an automatically inflatable vest which includes two air chambers having volumes that are different from each other for making the two air chambers act as buffers in two stages.
These conventional jackets adopt a structure in which the rider and a vehicle body are connected to each other by a wire. When the rider moves away from the vehicle body with a distance between the rider and the vehicle body exceeding a predetermined value, the air bag is deployed.
Further, JP-A-2002-285408 discloses a system which includes a sensor for detecting a collision which is mounted on a vehicle-body front fork portion, a CPU for determining the necessity of an operation of the air bag device based on the collision detected by the sensor, a device for transmitting an operating signal to a suit, which the rider wears, by radio communication, a receiver which receives the transmitted operating signal, and an ignition circuit which ignites an inflator.
The jacket described in JP-A-2002-20907 is configured such that the device is operated when the distance between the rider and the vehicle body becomes longer than a predetermined quantity. When the rider forgets to remove the wire in a normal dismount operation or when the rider erroneously manipulates the wire during the wire handling manipulation, the wire becomes longer than the predetermined quantity. Thus, there exists a possibility that the air bag device is operated.
Further, in the system which is described in JP-A-2002-285408, an operation signal is outputted after detecting a collision in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body. Thus, it may take time for detecting the collision. Still further, a sensor which detects the collision must be firmly mounted on a front fork to perform the detection with high accuracy thereby requiring the forming of the vehicle body with accuracy. In addition, and there may arise a situation wherein the mounting of the sensor becomes difficult depending on a type of the vehicle.